[artinfo] Criminalization of climate activists and cultural producers in the Czech Republic

[Oliver Ressler]

I am one of 90 people who participated at a 
blockade of Bílina coal mine in Northern Bohemia 
in the Czech Republic in June 2018, against who 
the company Severoãeské doly ("North Bohemian 
Coal Mines") filed a lawsuit at the City Court in 
Chomutov. With legal repression, they think they 
can silence protests against coal mining.

There is a fundraising campaign running to cover 
the cost of the court case and attorneys, so 
please feel free to share and donate:
https://www.darujme.cz/projekt/1201737?locale=en

This is my statement that has been published in 
Czech translation on social media as part of the 
defense campaign:

*
**In times of climate breakdown, when the 
Amazonas is on fire and Venice under water, when 
the Arctic ice is melting and ecosystems 
collapsing, the ongoing extraction from the Earth 
of coal and gas must be seen for what it is: a 
crime against humanity. The blockading of coal 
mines and other fossil infrastructure is 
therefore an entirely legitimate form of 
self-defense: an attempt to protect humanity, 
ecosystems and all forms of life on planet from 
even greater damage. **
**Whatever particular reasons led people to join 
the blockade, they are sure to have been good 
reasons. Speaking personally, my reason is that 
as an artist and film-maker I have followed the 
climate justice movement for the last couple of 
years, documenting the ever-evolving forms of 
mass civil disobedience and amplifying the voices 
of climate activists in films and other artworks. 
To be among such committed people is constantly 
inspiring. I hope my work can help at least in 
some small way to share these shining moments of 
climate action with people who are not yet part 
of it. **
**My involvement in the blockade of the Bílina 
coal mine in 2018 resulted in the film 
"Everything's coming together while everything's 
falling apart: Limity jsme my" (4K, 10 min., 
2019), which is the fifth film in a cycle of 
films on climate action. **
**It can be watched in exhibitions, biennials and 
screenings, or through following this link: 
https://vimeo.com/293150164 (password: Northern 
Bohemia)**
**
**Oliver Ressler*


http://www.ressler.at/everythings_coming_together/
https://vimeo.com/oliverressler
https://www.instagram.com/oliver.ressler